Former Framingham man charged in child porn case

Friday

May 2, 2014 at 12:10 AMMay 2, 2014 at 12:24 AM

By Norman MillerDaily News Staff

FRAMINGHAM - A former Framingham man tearfully confessed to police that he downloaded and watched videos and viewed images of men having sex with children as young as infants, authorities said.Brendan Sullivan "began to cry and admitted he had a problem with child pornography," when confronted by police at his then-Danforth Street home on Jan. 30, according to a police report filed in Framingham District Court on Wednesday.Framingham Police arrested Sullivan, now of 42 School St., Waltham, on Wednesday at noon, and charged him with possession of child pornography and dissemination of a child pornography.In January, state police were investigating online child pornography. A trooper logged onto a free, public, peer-to-peer file-sharing network and found a network of more than 2,800 digital files broken up into 685 separate "pieces," the report said. All of the files appeared to be child pornography.Of those "pieces," 102 of them originated from an IP address registered to Sullivan. State police looked at samples which showed girls ranging in age from 3 months to 8 years being sexually assaulted by adult men, the report said.The state police contacted Framingham Police who went to Sullivan's home, and he admitted to downloading the pornography."Mr. Sullivan acknowledged to searching for pornography using search terms such as 'PTHC' (preteen hardcore) and additional terms associated with child pornography," the report said.Police seized his phones and computers that day and had them forensically examined before arresting him on Wednesday.Sullivan pleaded not guilty at his Framingham District Court arraignment on Wednesday. Judge Douglas Stoddart released him on a $10,000 peace bond, which means if Sullivan is arrested, an automatic $10,000 bail will be set.Stoddart also ordered Sullivan to wear a GPS monitoring bracelet and to only leave home for church, medical appointments and meetings with his lawyer. He was ordered to stay away from children younger than 18 and prohibited from owning electronic devices, including cellphones.Sullivan is due back in court on June 18 for a pretrial conference.Norman Miller can be reached at 508-626-3823 or nmiller@wickedlocal.com. For up-to-date crime news, follow Norman Miller on Twitter @Norman_MillerMW.